Georgia Southern is the third of four consecutive opponents who have an open date the week before facing Georgia State. The teams will meet for the first time on Saturday at the Georgia Dome.
Louisiana-Lafayette and South Alabama were off the week before facing Georgia State. Appalachian State is off this week and will face Georgia State next week.
“It’s the luck of the draw,” Georgia State coach Trent Miles said. “I can’t explain it.”
The final two Sun Belt opponents, Troy and Texas State, will play on Thursdays the week before facing Georgia State, giving them two extra days of rest.
Member schools are given the entire schedule before it is released and have several days to review it so that they can raise any questions. Miles said he looked at his team’s schedule, but not the other teams’ schedules, and did ask to trade bye weeks with New Mexico State to break up what was a going to be a long break after the season-opener, followed by a stretch of eight consecutive games. Miles said he, coach Doug Martin and the athletic directors worked out the switch.
There are several factors that affect each team’s schedule, according to a Sun Belt spokesman, starting with ESPN and its networks hosting the Tuesday and Thursday games. Also affecting the schedules are no-play dates teams ask for (Georgia State asked for and received two, Oct. 4 and Nov. 1, and the conference usually only can accommodate one), class schedules and breaks, the distribution of home and away conference dates, as well as the non-conference games that the Sun Belt allows its member teams to schedule when the games work best for them.
Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson said he thinks Georgia State’s schedule is an anomaly and defended the results of the process.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of fair or unfair,” he said. “It’s to try to create as balanced a schedule as you possibly can taking into considering many different factors.”
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